Religious experience

Religious experience

• An event that people feel gives them a direct contact with god or the divine

• Can happen to groups of people

• Some religious experiences are spontaneous, and often include ‘conversion experiences’, those which cause someone to join or change religion

• Can be brought about as a result of intensive training and self discipline

• “A religious experience…alters behaviour, changes attitudes…life enhancing…added confidence or courage” - alister hardy

• “A religious experience involves some kind of perception of the invisible world” - ninian smart

St Augustine book

On the Literal Meaning of Genesis

Rudolf Otto book

The Idea of the Holy

William James book

The Varieties of Religious Experience

Walter Stace book

The Teachings of the Mystics

Richard Swinburne book

Is there a god?

Three types of religious experiences

• Visions - perception of a divine message, figure, or event (St Augustine)

• Mystical - an experience of oneness/ unity (William James and Walter Stace)

• Numinous - an experience of something ‘wholly other’ (Rudolf Otto)

St Augustine’s three categories of vision experience

• Corporeal: ‘bodily vision’ - visions which appear as if to the senses, eg when St Bernadette saw the physical form of the Virgin Mary appear before her

• Imaginative: ‘spiritual vision’ - a vision in a dream, in which the experiencer has no control, eg Pharoah’s dream

• Intellectual: highest level of vision, seeing things as they really are, eg St Teresa of Avila who often sensed the presence of Christ

Numinous experience

• Describes a class of experiences in which the ‘numen’ (divine) is experienced as Wholly Other and a mysterium tremendum (awe-inspiring mystery)

• The numinous is what remains of the non-rational side of religion (this is different from ‘irrational’ – it means neither rational nor irrational; outside reason). Christianity for Otto was the highest religion as it had unified rationality with non-rational religious experience.

Characters of numinous experiences

• A sense of being separate from the numinous: it is infinite and sacred while we are finite and profane. This leads to a feeling of:

  • Creature-consciousness

  • A feeling of numinous dread

  • A feeling of overpoweringness, awe, and wonder

  • Sui generis

• A good example of a numinous experience is Moses’ experience of the Burning Bush in the Book of Exodus. Moses shows creature consciousness when he recognises he is on sacred ground and in the presence of God.

Sui Generis

Unique experience, in a category of its own

Wholly other

The idea that the numen (god) is completely different from all other things that exist

Creature consciousness

A feeling of insignificance and profanity compared to the holy

Numinous dread

Fear of something because it exists, not because of what it can do

Mystical experience

An experience of oneness with the divine. Mystical experiences are had in a range of different religions by people who call themselves mystics.

Four qualities of mystical experiences (James)

• Passive: the individual has no control over the experience

• Ineffable: the experience cannot be put into words

• Noetic: the individual leaves the experience with a deeper sense of knowledge

• Transient: the experience is short, never longer than around two hours (but its effects are long-lasting)

James conclusions about mystical experiences

• They point to the ability of the human mind to experience higher states of consciousness and suggest the existence of something greater

• They do not support a specific religious tradition

• People who have had mystical experiences have the right to accept their authority

• People who have not had mystical experiences do not have an obligation to accept those of others

• People who have had these experiences almost always experience positive long-term psychological benefits

• James was a pragmatist: this means he believes that religious experiences are verified through their effects on individuals – we do not need to investigate the cause

Walter Stace’s definition of a mystical experience

• Non sensuous and non-intellectual union with the divine

  • Non sensuous - not involving senses

  • Non intellectual - not involving the intellect

Two types of mystical experience

• Extrovertive: external world of objects is transfigured and the oneness shines through it

• Introvertive: external world is shut off altogether and the individual enters a higher consciousness

Correspondence theory

• Considers first whether the claim being made corresponds with ‘the real world’, ie describes what is really there.

• Assumes that we are able to access this objective reality and use it to assess the truth of statements.

• For individual religious experiences this is rarely the case

Coherence theory

• Considers first whether the claim being made is consistent with other known truths within a system of thought

• ‘Coherence’ because the aim is to maintain a coherent set of beliefs that do not contradict each other

• Relies on previous beliefs which have already been proved

• Religious believers would argue that this approach shows bias towards scientific ways of thinking. Religious Experiences are by their nature unusual so will contradict our usual beliefs.

Pragmatic theory

• Approaches truth claims by exploring the consequences of believing them, rather than the origins of the beliefs

• James - ‘By their fruits ye shall know them, not by their roots’

Logical positivism

A variation of the correspondence theory which focuses on scientific or empirical methods of testing

Self authentication

• Some experiences are so overwhelming they seem to rule out the possibility of doubt

• You cannot not believe them

Swinburne - principle of credulity

When x appears to be there, it is normally the case that x is really there. We can trust our experiences unless special considerations (e.g. drug use, schizophrenia) apply. If we are having a religious experience, it probably is a religious experience.

Swinburne - principle of testimony

When a person makes a claim about x who is normally trustworthy, we should believe them about x. We can trust the claims of others unless special considerations (e.g. history of lying, reason to profit) apply. If someone we trust tells us about a religious experience, we should take that experience at face value.

Strengths of Swinburne’s principles of credulity and testimony

• Simple to understand and easy to apply

• Fair criteria - it acknowledges the importance to the individual and recognises cognitive bias

• Credible to people of faith → consistent with gods nature

Weaknesses of Swinburne’s principles of credulity and testimony

• Doesn’t consider situations where corruption of the senses is undetectable

• Doesn’t account for compulsive liars who haven’t been caught or confidence tricksters who deliberately build trust

• It is also possible to apply the principle of negative credulity: there are many people in the world who have not experienced God, so using the principle of testimony their evidence outweighs the theists.

  • Swinburne has responded to this principle by arguing that testimony and credulity cannot apply to the absence of experience.

• Lacks falsifiability - different from ordinary experience

• Works on assumption that there is belief in god

Challenges to religious experience from science - neuroscience

• Conditions such as Temporal Lobe Epilepsy may be the real cause of religious experience. For example, St Paul’s conversion shows many of the symptoms of TLE, such as flashing lights and unconsciousness.

  • Religious believers may respond that God himself may deliberately bring about these conditions so that chosen individuals can experience him.

Challenges to religious experience from science - drugs

• Another challenge is to examine the influence of drugs, especially psychedelics. These can cause religious experiences which points to them being products of the brain. How many other religious experiences could be (unknowingly) brought on by consuming psychedelics?

  • Religious believers may respond that, again, this is not incompatible with the experience being of God. William James suggests that use of nitrus oxide can open the mind up to experiencing a higher reality that is normally closed off.

Challenges to religious experience from science - mass hysteria

Another challenge is mass hysteria. There are many documented psychological phenomena, such as laughing epidemics, in which experiences form the root of a psychic epidemic affecting many people.

Challenges to religious experience from science - psychological

• Freud believed that religion is caused by unresolved childhood trauma that is repressed by the adult mind but expressed through wish-fulfilment.

• People may delude themselves into thinking they have had religious experiences because the image of a divine Father-figure gives them comfort and helps address issues around their own father

Influence of religious experiences and their value for religious faith

• Religious experiences may influence people in several ways:

  • They may be foundational for religions. For example, Islam only exists as a religion because of a religious experience had by the Prophet Mohammad

  • Sites of religious experience, such as Lourdes, become places of pilgrimage which bring religious believers together.

  • Religious experiences are inspirational to others. For example, the Five Ascetics choose to follow the Buddha when it is clear he has had a religious experience.

  • Religious experiences may be conversion experiences: they may lead people to take up faith or change religions. St Paul’s experience causes him to stop persecuting Christians and become one instead.

• Religious experiences therefore have value for religious faith though it is doubted how much. William James, for example, argues that religious experiences are primary and more important than organisations such as churches. However institutions such as the Catholic Church may discourage a focus on individual experiences if these challenge established teachings.